A quarrel over money may put an end to local Atlantic Broadband
customers receiving WGRZ-TV Channel 2 out of Buffalo, N.Y., as of
Jan. 1.
Jim Toellner, president and general manager of WGRZ, said the
reason he was contacting the media on Tuesday was to warn customers
in the Bradford and Salamanca, N.Y., areas that the channel might
not be available through the local cable for much longer.
“We’re just coming off a four-year contract,” Toellner
explained. When the contracts were negotiated, it was a different
company who held the Bradford market. Atlantic Broadband bought out
smaller companies and took over existing contracts, Toellner
said.
Describing the station’s viewpoint, he said, “They (the
carriers) obviously take our signal and air it and profit by it. We
get some sort of compensation by the systems. We’re negotiating
with that now.
“We’re six days away from the deadline. We just thought we
should get the word out, we might be coming off” the Atlantic
Broadband system, Toellner said.
However, David Dane of Atlantic Broadband painted a slightly
different picture of where the two sides stand.
“We don’t typically do our negotiating in the newspaper,” he
said, adding he was not going to go into details about the
negotiations for that reason.
“The FCC rules call for good-faith negotiations for carriage of
broadcast signal,” Dane said. “A few days ago, Mr. Toellner sent us
a take-it-or-lose-it offer.
“We countered (Tuesday) with a legitimate offer that has been
approved by Gannett,” which is the owner of WGRZ, Dane explained.
Instead of responding to the offer, the station issued a press
release about the possible removal of the channel from Atlantic
Broadband.
“This is a matter that impacts Bradford and Salamanca,” Dane
said. “We do have another NBC affiliate” on the air in the market
here, so “there will be no interruption of programming.
“We do sincerely regret that the negotiations have gotten to the
point where there are threats being made,” Dane said. “We’ll
continue to do everything in our power to come to some equitable
arrangement.”
To explain the matter in the simplest terms, WGRZ wants more
money for the same service, Dane said.
“They are advertiser-supported television. This is a
little-known development in the FCC rules,” he said. “Broadcasters
have been empowered through government to collect profit from
carriage of the signal.
“It’s programming they sell advertising for,” he said,
explaining they essentially are being paid twice for the same
service. “In an attempt to build up their revenues and their
businesses, they are seeking revenue from the carriers.
“In turn, we must pass the cost to our subscribers,” he
explained.
Toellner said he remains hopeful that negotiations will lead to
an agreement before it becomes necessary to remove WGRZ from
Atlantic Broadband. He said anyone seeking more information can
contact the station.
If the station is pulled from the cable provider, Toellner
offered alternatives to local customers. He said the station can be
picked up by an over-the-air antenna for free or through a local
satellite provider.
